India’s film industry, commonly known as Bollywood, has issued a “blanket ban” against all Pakistani entertainers working in the country in a blowback over the Kashmir attack which has further strained tense ties between the two nuclear neighbors.
A statement released by the All India Cine Workers Association (AICWA) condemned Friday’s attack and declared “a total ban on Pakistani actors and artists working in the film industry.”
A statement from the AICWA stated that the organization condemns the brutal attack on soldiers.
“We're officially announcing a total ban on Pakistani Actors and Artists working in the Film Industry. Still if any organization insists on working with Pakistani Artists, they will be banned by AICWA and strong action will be taken against them,” it added.
“The nation comes first, we stand with our nation," the statement concluded, in yet another clear sign of surging nationalism and protectionism in the country.
The suicide bomb attack on a paramilitary police convoy in Kashmir last Thursday killed at least 40 men, the deadliest single attack on Indian forces.
The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group claimed responsibility for the attack. India accuses Pakistan for harboring the group. Pakistan denies that.
Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.
Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.
Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire came into effect in 2003.
Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.
